Cases for hard cover books are typically produced by printing a rectangular sheet of paper, cloth, or leather, known as the cover material, and subsequently gluing the cover material to two cover panels and a spine panel. The cover panels and spine panel (the rigid component) provide rigidity for the case, with one of the cover panels forming the front of the finished book and the second forming the back. The spine panel provides rigidity to the spine portion of the book. The cover panels are typically made of chipboard or other stiff material, whereas the spine may be made of chipboard or a thinner, more flexible material. A space is usually left between the spine and the panels so that the cover may be opened and closed in hinge-like fashion. Manufacturing techniques typically include a step of placing the cover panels and spine panel on a glued cover material and then folding the edges of the cover material up and onto the inside edges of the panels (and the ends of the spine). Together, the spine panel, cover panels, and cover material are known as a hard book cover assembly or case.
In an unfinished hard book cover assembly, the cover material is sized and placed to extend outwardly past the periphery of the spine panel and the cover panels to be later folded back over the edges of the spine panel and cover panels to produce an attractive cover. The overlapping edges of the cover material are glued on the inside of the panels and spine, and these edges are generally hidden later in the book-making process when paper or other material is glued over the interior of the hard book cover in a manner that overlaps, and thus hides, the edge of the cover material from a reader. Typically, only a few millimeters of cover material are visible around the inside edges when a hard cover book is completed. Procedures for fabricating a hard cover book are described below and in co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,094 (the '094 patent) and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/634,968, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties herein.